San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-08-02

The most remarkable instance of hereditary
crime and pauperism Of which there is a
well traced history is that of the "Juke" family
of New York state. This interesting record
was the work Of Richard l.. Dugdale, a
member of the Prison Reform association.
He learned more or less of the life history
Of 700 descendants of the Juke sisters, and
presents a deplorable and appalling array
Of facts and figures. He traced this
wretched family through six generations, and
carefully calculates the cost to the com
munities infested by the fifth and sixth
generations at over 81 800 900, not to take
into consideration the entailment of crime,
misery and pauperism Of survivors in sue
ceeding generations, and incurable disease,
insanity and idiocy, as a necessary sequence
of all this debauchery. Eighty Of the Jukes
were idiotic or insane. The crimes of the
family covered everything in the almost end
less variety known to the law. Both Martha
and Ada Juke were women of feeble minds,
but they left a record, infamous though it be,
as mothers of criminals"
The census shows upwards Of 80 900 feeble
minded and idiotic persons in the United
States, women in due ratio predominating
The luke sisters are the prototypes of like
creatures to be found in jails and poor houses
in every state in the Union. The result is
seen, but the source is not considered. Prisons
and asylums multiply, and except with the
few the causes and prevention of crime, in
sanity and idiocy receive little attention or
thought.
There are two views taken by the world in
considering the defective classes. One is
general disregard of the misery attending UNI
fortunates. in the hope and belief that the
doctrine of the survival of the fttest"
will ultimately wipe them out. The propo-
sition, too, to destroy the helpless and
incompetent young is one that cannot be
tolerated by civilized beings. That course is
left to savages and the brute creation. The
second view is that of paternal government
for detectives. DR.. Kerlin, in discussing the
question of the government dealing with the
wants and rights of the individual, says:
''In our present development, government,
where best for the common veal, should as
sumo the relation Of parent to its subject;
licensing here and refusing there; correcting
an evil at one point or absolutely abatlng
that evil at another; giving personal liberty
where self reliance proves its rightful claim;
abridging personal liberty where its exercise
is attended with crusade against the rights
of the peaceable whether in the spoliation OF
the house breaker or house burner, in the
tyranny and brutality of the inebriate's home,
or in the corruption of the very springs OF
life in the prostitution Of the brothel"
DIR. Powell, of the Iowa Institution for
Feeble Minded, says: "The strongest letters
of appeal for admission of inmates to our in
stitution come from parents who have ad-
vanced to that period in life when thoughts of
the future welfare of their children crowd
heavily upon them. The mother Of an imbe-
cile child is one of the most pitiable objects in
the world, for her burden Of helplessness,
grief and care must increase with the pass
ing years, and to many an aged mother has
come the thought, who will care for and
guard my afflicted daughter in the futurep
"The very idea of feeble child being with
out suitable protection is painful, not only
to parents, but to all good citizens 1t is not
only Justice to the individual, but to the
state. that persons thus afflicted should have
the strong arm of the commonwealth to shield
and protect them. 1t is not enough that the
state provide temporarily for this class of un-
fortunates; it must be a life school and home
for its inmates, thereby preventing the trans
mission of infirmities to still more de-
Graded progeny" An Iowa legislative com
mittee urges the permanency of the feeble
minded institution on the grounds Of public
safety. believing that to turn inmates out
with the possibilities of reproducing their
| kind was a disregard of law both human and
| divine.
New York and Pennsylvania have already
taken advance steps in providing special and
permanent accommodations for unguaTded
| idiotic females. Despite false political phi
losophy and hardness of heart, the noble
movement in behalf of the permanent sup
mort of the weakminded and other dependent
classes will eventually succeed and all such
delinauents will become the wards of the gov
eminent "In the future" says DIR. Kerlin,
"the correlation of idiocy, insanity, pauper-
ism and crime will be understood. There will
be fewer almshouses and more workshops
Jails. criminal courts and grogshops will cor
spondingly decrease, and here and there over
| the country may be the villages Of the
simple made up of the warped, twisted and
incorrigible, happily contributing to their
own and the support of those more lowly-
cities of refuge in truth-havens in which
all shall live contentedly, because no longer
misunderstood nor taxed beyond their mental
and moral capacity. They shall go out no
more,' and they shall neither marry nor be
| gwen III IuSoC hdNSllS dShiSdltNt
to incompetency."
Twas led to an investigation OF this ques-
ton Of public control and isolation of the
mentally deformed class in particular by a
visit to the Iowa State Institution for Feeble
| Minded Children located at Glenwood, where
$50 of the most unfortunate of human beings
are congregated, many Of them having been
rescued from the garbage heap of society and
there trained in the direction of intelligence
and betterment.
Iowa was the seventh stote in the Union to
organize an institution for the education and
care of this class. Twenty states now recog.
nize the right Of the weak minded child q
some sort of eleyating influences. Thirteen
of these states have institutions to this end
while the other seven make partial provision
for feeble minded children in private or othel
state institutions The Iowa institution wei
opened in 1876, under the SUPPLEMENTARY Of
DR.. O. W. Archibald, now of the North Da
kota insane hospital, and was succeeded il
l. n. Il I H., L.. f,sN f,,l1y